Housing and Community

doi:10.1017/9781108954983.010

9 - Housing and Community

Structures in Houses and Kinship in Roman Tebtynis

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2022

April Pudsey

Edited by

J. A. Baird and

April Pudsey

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J. A. Baird: Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
April Pudsey: Affiliation:
Manchester Metropolitan University

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Summary

This chapter brings together Greek documentary papyri from family archives in and around the town of Tebtynis in the Fayyum, with the archaeological record for housing across the region. In so doing, it presents a case for understanding the ownership, transactions and leasing of houses, or parts of houses, as a means to develop or preserve social status and standing in these towns and villages. The chapter explores transactions in the papyri between known individuals, against the context of the observed physical life cycle of houses and their associated outside space. It concludes that, for those individuals of specific social status (primarily gymnasial), both close and extended kinship ties were an important part of the considerations when financial transactions took place involving housing. Such activities were crucial to the operation of social positioning within the middle and upper echelons of these relatively small communities in the Fayyum. The extent to which these patterns may be said to be typical of similar elements of kinship and social structures across Roman Egypt is debatable, but the approach taken by this chapter provides a means of exploring these relationships further.

Keywords

Roman Egypt papyri Tebtynis family status

Type: Chapter
Information: Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Material and Textual Approaches
, pp. 300 - 321

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108954983.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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9 - Housing and Community

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